Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix and stay conscious.

But if people want to swim in the Thames, if they want to take their lives into their own hands, then they should be able to do so with all the freedom and exhilaration of our woad-painted ancestors.

The volunteering spirit of Londoners is part of what makes this the best big city on earth.

Can I say anything good about Ken Livingstone? A long time ago he did some good things, but I can't now remember what any of them were.

David Lloyd George had been to Germany, and been so dazzled by the Führer that he compared him to George Washington. Hitler was a 'born leader', declared the befuddled former British Prime Minister. He wished that Britain had 'a man of his supreme quality at the head of affairs in our country today'. This from the hero of the First World War! The man who had led Britain to victory over the Kaiser!

These days we dimly believe that the Second World War was won with Russian blood and American money; and though that is in some ways true, it is also true that, without Churchill, Hitler would almost certainly have won.

I am hoping very much to get re-elected but it is going to be a tough fight.